Trojan Horse, A myth or more than that?

The idea was from the Greek Mythology, when Greeks were gaining malicious access in the area where they were not allowed in a harmless way.

In the context of computer software, a Trojan horse is a malicious program that is disguised as or embedded within legitimate software.

There are two common types of Trojan horses.

One, is otherwise useful software that has been corrupted by a cracker inserting malicious code that executes while the program is used. Examples include various implementations of weather alerting programs, computer clock setting software, and peer to peer file sharing utilities.

The other type is a standalone program that masquerades as something else, like a game or image file, in order to trick the user into some misdirected complicity that is needed to carry out the program's objectives.

Trojan horse programs cannot operate autonomously, in contrast to some other types of malware, like viruses or worms. Just as the Greeks needed the Trojans to bring the horse inside for their plan to work, Trojan horse programs depend on actions by the intended victims. As such, if trojans replicate and even distribute themselves, each new victim must run the program/trojan. Therefore their virulence is of a different nature, depending on successful implementation of social engineering concepts rather than flaws in a computer system's security design or configuration.
Definition


A Trojan horse program has a useful and desired function, or at least it has the appearance of having such. Trojans use false and fake names to trick users into dismissing the processes. These strategies are often collectively termed social engineering. In most cases the program performs other, undesired functions, but not always. The useful, or seemingly useful, functions serve as camouflage for these undesired functions. A trojan is designed to operate with functions unknown to the victim. The kind of undesired functions are not part of the definition of a Trojan Horse; they can be of any kind, but typically they have malicious intent.


In practice, Trojan Horses in the wild often contain spying functions (such as a packet sniffer) or backdoor functions that allow a computer, unknown to the owner, to be remotely controlled from the network, creating a "zombie computer". The Sony/BMG rootkit Trojan, distributed on millions of music CDs through 2005, did both of these things. Because Trojan horses often have these harmful behaviors, there often arises the misunderstanding that such functions define a Trojan Horse.

In the context of Computer Security, the term 'Trojan horse' was first used in a seminal report edited/written by JP Anderson (aka 'The Anderson Report' (Computer Security Technology Planning, Technical Report ESD-TR-73-51, USAF Electronic Sysstem Division, Hanscom AFB, Oct, 1972), which credits Daniel J Edwards then of NSA for both the coinage and the concept. One of the earliest known Trojans was a binary Trojan distributed in the binary Multics distribution; it was described by PA Karger and RR Schell in 1974 (Multics Security Evaluation, Technical Report ESD-TR-74-193 vol II, HQ Electronic Systems Division, Hanscom AFB, June 1974).

The basic difference from computer viruses is that a Trojan horse is technically a normal computer program and does not possess the means to spread itself. The earliest known Trojan horses were not designed to spread themselves. They relied on fooling people to allow the program to perform actions that they would otherwise not have voluntarily performed.

Trojans implementing backdoors typically setup a hidden server, from which a hacker with a client can then log on to. They have become polymorphic, process injecting, prevention disabling, easy to use without authorization, and therefore are abusive.

Trojans of recent times also come as computer worm payloads. It is important to note that the defining characteristics of Trojans are that they require some user interaction, and cannot function entirely on their own nor do they self-propagate/replicate.



Example of a simple Trojan horse

A simple example of a trojan horse would be a program named "waterfalls.scr.exe" claiming to be a free waterfall screensaver which, when run, instead begins erasing all the files on the computer.

Precautions against Trojan horses

Trojan horses can be protected against through end user awareness. Trojan Horse viruses can cause a great deal of damage to a personal computer but even more damaging is what they can do to a business, particularly a small business that usually does not have the same virus protection capabilities as a large business. Since a Trojan Horse virus is hidden it is harder to protect yourself or your company from them but there are things that you can do.

Trojan Horses are most commonly spread through an e-mail, much like other types of common viruses. The only difference being of course is that a Trojan Horse is hidden. The best ways to protect yourself and your company from Trojan Horses are as follows:

1. If you receive e-mail from someone that you do not know or you receive an unknown attachment never open it right away. As an e-mail use you should confirm the source. Some hackers have the ability to steal an address books so if you see e-mail from someone you know that does not necessarily make it safe.

2. When setting up your e-mail client make sure that you have the settings so that attachments do not open automatically. Some e-mail clients come ready with an anti-virus program that scans any attachments before they are opened. If your client does not come with this it would be best to purchase on or download one for free.

3. Make sure your computer has an anti-virus program on it and make sure you update it regularly. If you have an auto-update option included in your anti-virus program you should turn it on, that way if you forget to update your software you can still be protected from threats

4. Operating systems offer patches to protect their users from certain threats and viruses, including Trojan Horses. Software developers like Microsoft offer patches that in a sense “close the hole” that the Trojan horse or other virus would use to get through to your system. If you keep your system updated with these patches your computer is kept much safer.

5. Avoid using peer-2-peer or P2P sharing networks like Kazaa , Limewire, Ares, or Gnutella because those programs are generally unprotected from viruses and Trojan Horse viruses are especially easy to spread through these programs. Some of these programs do offer some virus protection but often they are not strong enough.

Besides these sensible precautions, one can also install anti-trojan software, some of which are offered free.

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How not to het hoocked by Phishing

Phishing is one of the valuable internet security threat. A wonderful tool for scammers indeed. Scammers distributed millions of phishing scam emails that targeted many different entities. My purpose is to make internet users armed with little knowledge about how phishing scams work, so that they can ensure themselves that they wont become victim of such sites.

What the heck is this?

A phishing scam is one in which victims are tricked into providing personal information such as account numbers, passwords and credit card details to what they believe to be a legitimate company or organization. The entire purpose of a typical phishing scam is to get the recipient to provide personal information. In order to carry out this trick, the scammers often create a "look-a-like" webpage that is designed to resemble the target company's official website. Typically, emails are used as "bait" in order to get the potential victim to visit the bogus website. The emails use various devious ruses to trick readers into clicking on the included links, thereby opening the bogus website. Information submitted on these bogus websites is harvested by the scammers and may then be used to steal funds from the user's accounts and/or steal the victim's identity.

Phishing scam emails use a variety of ruses to explain why it is necessary for recipients to provide the requested information. Often, the messages imply that urgent action on the part of the recipient is required. Some of the most common ruses are listed below. The scam emails may claim that:

• The customer's account details need to be updated due to a software or security upgrade.
• The customer's account may be terminated if account details are not provided within a specified time frame.
• Suspect or fraudulent activity involving the user's account has been detected and the user must therefore provide information urgently.
• Routine or random security procedures require that the user verify his or her account by providing the requested information.

Don’t let them bait you

Links in phishing scam messages are often disguised to make it appear that they lead to the genuine institution site. The best way to protect you is rather than using the provided link in the email, you should copy the link and email it to the legitimate company or business, asking if the email is legitimate. If it is frudlante this could help shut down phisher faster.
Only use the address that you have used before, or start at your normal homepage.
Most companies require you to log in to a secure site. Look for the lock at the bottom of your browser and “https” in front of the Website address.

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Thou shalt not be hacked

One fraudulent act that is illegal in some ways and helpful in others is hacking. and the computer professional is one who is never hacked.

It basically happens when a hacker exploits a security breach in a network or computer and is able to access the information through the internet. As long as he is not detected or the computer shut down, he will be able to hack the computer as long as it is online.

One way to minimize the consequences of having a hacker is by protecting the computer system.
So follow these simple guidelines and you will be saved.

1. Stop using Internet explorer and switch to Opera or Mozilla Firefox. They are more secure and off course faster than that
2. Update your antivirus and save yourself from Trojans. See more on Trojans.
3. and Don’t click on unknown links they can be the great source of phishing. See more on Phishing
   
4. Boot into safe mode and run all three scans.
5. While the scans are going check your registry (Click start --> Run and type regedit to get intot he registry) and look in HKEY_CurrentUser/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/run & HKEY_Local_Machine/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/run. Verify that all programs listed are legitimate and wanted.
6. If or when your antivirus scan comes across anything, search for that file name in your registry and delete it.
7. Use explorer to go to the windows/system32 folder and sort by date. If you haven't already done so, make sure you can see the entire file names. click Tools --> Folder Options and unclick the box labeled "Hide extensions for known file types" and under Hidden files and folders click "Show hidden files and folders." However, make sure you choose "Hide protected operating system files" so you don't accidentally remove anything that would cripple your computer.. You are looking for recent files with names ending with .exe and .dll that look suspicious. Major culprits will have gibberish names such as alkjdlkjfa.exe.
8. Once you can get clean scans in safe mode, reboot in normal mode and scan all over again. If you can't get a clean scan in regular mode then you have something more persistant that could take more research.
9. Make sure your firewall doesn't have strange exceptions.
10. If you suspect anything that is going wrong with your computer is the action of a stalker, on a more secure system change all your passwords.
11. If your system has been specifically targeted and hacked you can never be 100% sure that your system is no longer compromised so start with 9, make backups of personal files on the infected system and format and re-install Windows.

Make these security measures, a part of your computer routine and If you know more please comment here.

Take care !

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Does Islam Subsist

Islam

The second largest religion in the world, with an estimated 1.7 billion adherent spread across the world, known as Muslims believe in a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of Prophet Muhammad May Peace and Allah’s blessing be Upon Him known as Islam. Islam is an Arabic word which means submission, referring to the total surrender to the will of Allah. Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the unadulterated word of God as revealed to Prophet Muhammad May Peace and Allah’s blessing be Upon Him through the Archangel Gabriel, and obey that what is there in Quran, Hadith and Sunnah.

Islamism

Islamism is a neologism, denoting a political ideology that holds that Islam is not only a religion to be practiced by individuals, but a political system. Islamism holds that all Muslims should live in a state which is governed according to Sharia law. Its orderly regarded as order or less preferred term Islamic Fundamentalism.

I know most of the people reading that, must be with a confusing thought that “is Islamism and Islamic Fundamentalism same or not?? May be not for those who think moderate ….

Fundamentalists can be political individuals or leaders pursuing the search for more Islam or more original Islam or they might be creating their own definition of Islam. Well some of those are intolerant and exclusivist, some favorable to science and some are anti -scientism. Islamist has a political agenda which follows with that Islam should be prevailed in political and social issues of a country. Although the two can become identical in lenient way.

Difference prevails between the both

When we say word “Difference”, well It depends on the things we are measuring for. When we talk about such crucial things which depends on ideologies and believes, the difference line becomes very tiny between things. So is the case here there is a transparent line between Islam and Islamism. One is the name of a religion and other is the way of producing fear matter among people who are living in a religious state. Or I should say misusing the name of Allah for your own purpose, becoming the caretaker of Islam. It is really simple to urge someone toward the things he is already alarmed for. Not Islamism but Islamic fundamentalism is the way to urge ourselves toward Islam between we know that everybody is liable to taking care of his own religious acts so we are doing it and we can do it ourselves, or you think you need a person to make you do that. At least I think I don’t need so. Well it does not mean that I am saying not to follow Islam in your daily life, do follow it, obey its lessons in your social and personal life. Even it is true that Islam is a perfect mechanism which allows an individual as well as a system to live in a perfect living architecture. But it does not mean that we must have some people imposed on us who will decide that are we following Islam or not.

I am not opposing religious leaders nor that I am saying that we don’t need a guideline. Here it will be little unforgiving if I would say that I am just saying that not everyone is allowed to be a religious leader. Not everyone has the wisdom to promote peace (Islam). For this one first had better known the meaning of peace and what Islam says. First implement Islam on you then try to implement on others.

We here usually criticize the way one is offering prayer. We criticize the way one is calling Allah.

Because we have already assumed that our way is the right most. And For such small things we create disorder.

“And when it is said to them: ‘Create not disorder on the earth,’ they say: ‘We are only promoters of peace.’ ” (2:11)

“Beware! It is surely they who create disorder, but they do not perceive it.” (2:12)

We all know that Islam displays a confident posture in that it refuses to subscribe to any culture foreign to it which includes any concept, doctrine, legislation, moral value, life philosophy ...etc, that is not based on its beliefs, or has no common ground with it. So, the imitation of the capitalist, communist, socialist, Roman, Greek...etc. civilization; the free adoption of any of their doctrines, or the dissolution into their entities, is something firmly rejected by Islam. There is no way to reconcile these cultures with Islamic principles, objectives or system; whether on the level of beliefs and philosophy, or legislation, ethics, arts, literature, education...etc. Islam is near to nature and the easiest way to go. People adopt it because they easily understand it.

Although I believe it is already obvious that we can not confound Islam with other religions Islam has its own distinctive values so there should be An Islamic Leader who will be supposed to provide guideline but there is a big difference between guiding someone and dictating someone.

What do YOU think about it??

Not everyone reflect like me I know but most of us are really faded up of this controversy. What I think basically we need more knowledge to gain, to learn if we follow some religion. We have to pursue the basic rule of life that is first observe, learn, and then implement. Between teachings are still far away from us. As one can not play with the psyche of others by reading only one article of psychology, one can also not teaching Islam by having little knowledge itself. So please don’t try to be the caretaker of your religion, just take care of your believes. Well Islam does exist somehow. But if the original Islam subsists?

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